KENNY STARR - The Blind Man in the Bleachers (MCA) :: And some folks call Lou Reed sick. This brand of sentimentality is so putrescently morbid it makes Harry Chapin sound like Franz Kafka, relatively speaking. Send this kid to the showers (Dachau variety). R. R. BLACK OAK ARKANSAS - Live, Mutha! (Atco) :: Sly Stone (or Patti Smith, if you will) may well be Staggerlee, but Jim Dandy Mangrum is indubitably Bugs Bunny, and who's to say that a jive rabbit isn't a more effective persona for meeting the trials of our times? Karma-conscious Bugs would never kill for a mere hat — even Elmer Fudd's derby — but kidding pomposity to death is something else again. Which is not even to mention how good them big rabbit feets is for boogieing. R.R.

FRANK LOWE - Fresh (Arista Freedom) :: I first heard tenor saxophonist Lowe on an ESPDisk about two years ago and confusing ESP's infamous garage sound (it was a "live" recording) with a muddled conception on Lowe's part I filed the record under "Avant Garde: Lame" and left it there. But now with the clarity of this Arista release Lowe is revealed to be not only one of the most exciting sax players recording today but also a perfect tonic for those who have ingested too much new music by people whose conception reflects what passions are left when the heartline between mind and gut has been severed. Which doesn't mean that Anthony Braxton isn't a nice person.. .but this is the most compelling big label debut by a free player since Shepp whipped out fourforTrane. R.C.W.